“I can go down there too.”
“People do this, right?”
He nodded, which I couldn’t see in the darkness of the room, but I felt the movement of his head near mine. He put a hand to my face. “We take it one day at a time, and we’ll figure it out.”
We dozed off eventually, both of us sleeping fitfully, until Joe woke and looked at his phone screen. “Are you awake?” he asked quietly.
“Kinda.”
“Do you want to see the sun rise over the water?”
I sat up. “We forgot to do that all weekend.”
“Let’s go out.”
He pulled on shorts from next to the bed, and I grabbed his shirt. He took a blanket from the back of the sofa on our way out to the deck, Jax lifting her head at us as we walked by, then going back to sleep.
The sky was just lightening, and we sat together on the outdoor sofa, snuggled up against each other, the blanket protecting us from the chill of the night air off the water. I yawned. I would need a lot of coffee to get us home. But it was worth it.
A pinprick of brilliant light appeared on the horizon, growing slowly larger by the second, reflected in perfect symmetry against the water. I had seen the sun set against the ocean in California and that trip to Greece, but I had never seen a day dawn over it.
I turned my face up to Joe’s, only to find he was looking at me. “I don’t want to leave.”
He hugged me tightly, kissing the top of my head. “I don’t want you to, either. But I’m glad I found you.”
“I am too.”
We stayed like that for a long time, the sun climbing higher and higher over the waves before I rose to take a shower.
As the water washed over me, I leaned my forehead against the tile wall, wondering how I was going to go back to my childhood bedroom now. Then the glass door opened behind me and Joe stepped in, pressing a kiss to the nape of my neck.
I looked at him over my shoulder as he ran a gentle hand down my side and around my stomach, pulling me close against him. “It’s the one place Jax won’t interrupt us,” he said.
Then a black nose appeared against the fogged glass.
I laughed and turned in his arms, kissing him under the spray.
After we said goodbye and I promised to call him when I got home, I returned to the cottage, my hair still damp, to pack the rest of my things. Tony wasn’t there.
Bringing my bag down the stairs, I found my grandmother sitting in the living room. “Ready?”
She nodded, scooting to the edge of the seat, then leaning heavily on the arm of the sofa to rise.
“Let me just put my bags in the car and I’ll go get yours.”
“Tony brought them to the front hall.”
“Neither of you should be lifting those heavy things.”
She pinched my cheek. “May you live long enough for your bossy grandchildren to treat you like a child.”
With all the bags in the car, my grandmother stumped slowly down the stairs, clinging tightly to the railing. Then she stopped to look at the cottage one last time, as did I.
“Maybe the color isn’t so terrible,” she said.
“It’s not.”
She stared a moment longer, ghosts running up and down the stairs. Then she shook her head and turned toward the car.
“Come on. It’s time to go home.”
I took another look at this house that was, in many ways, all she had left of her parents, her brothers and sisters, her childhood, committing it to memory, before joining her in the car.
As I put it into gear and started down the road, I saw the empty lot where the Gardner house had stood reflected in the rearview mirror.
“Do you know who owns that land? Where the big house was?”
“Of course.”
She didn’t elaborate.
“So who owns it?”
“Why, Tony does.”
“Tony?”
“And me, I suppose. Although I told him I didn’t want it.”
“What?”
“Old Mrs. Gardner left it to the two of us. She died right before I married your grandfather. She thought Papa would come around. Or that we’d run off if we had the money. But there was no way to explain that one to anyone, so I told Tony it was all his.”
“And he never sold it?”
“No. The old fool could have a fortune, but instead he throws away the property taxes every year just so they don’t put up condos.”
“That’s—wow. And you swear you never cheated on Grandpa?”
“No, darling. I might lie and steal, but never that.”